Prof. Russell
George Russell dressed up as a professor during the traditional meeting with journalists organized on the media day of the Chinese GP, to explain a ‘quirk’ of the specific regulation that complicated life for many teams at the start of the Australian GP, making the starting phase extremely chaotic and dangerous. Along with the ‘pedagogical’ part, however, the World Championship leader did not miss out on a polemical jab which – although without naming it explicitly – seemed directed at Ferrari.
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“I believe there was an error that caught many teams off guard, namely the power limit on the formation lap – Russell explained, speaking with journalists – it is a very specific rule: I don’t know if you know it or not, but every lap there is a power limit. The drivers starting from the first half of the grid, and who were therefore beyond the timing line where times are taken, were already within a new lap. So when you start for the formation lap, you consume the battery and charge it and this is counted in the energy recovery limit of that lap. The drivers starting in the positions at the back of the grid, instead, when they start the formation lap cross the finish line and their count resets, because in fact they are already in the next lap“. A technicality that however makes a big difference, because those at the back can recharge more energy this way. Not only that: in the practice starts the teams did not think about this detail and therefore ‘simulated’ them in the wrong way.
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A jab at Ferrari?
“In the practice starts we had done, we started before this line and therefore when we crossed it the count reset – Russell further explained – but at the start of the race, starting from pole, I accelerated, I recharged the battery and this consumed about 50% of the energy recovery limit for that lap. When I got halfway down the track, I could no longer recharge the battery, so I didn’t have enough energy to do real burnouts“. Then, here is the polemical jab: “The FIA was considering changing this rule, but as you can imagine some teams that were making good starts didn’t want to change it, which in my opinion is a bit silly. Anyway, I’m not too worried, but it’s definitely a difficulty“, he concluded.
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